The Outsiders

Brand new heroes in a crowded world.

Session 1

Oliver Storm and Meat Shield stood on the bridge of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Helicarrier. Ollie, a current S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, was introducing Meat Shield personally to Director Maria Hill in the hopes that he could join the organization. A mutant with supernatural speed and a soldier of many wars, he was a perfect candidate. While discussing the particulars of his joining the bridge had an alert from The Raft indicating there was a massive prison break happening. The Director ordered everyone she could to respond to the alert and try to contain some of the most dangerous villains imaginable. Deciding this could be his tryout, she ordered Storm and Meat Shield to the raft as well.

Among the many contacts of S.H.I.E.L.D. that were pulled into action was Safer. A budding sorcerer and friend of Doctor Strange, he received a mental call and requested an airship to pick him up. Now joined with Oliver Storm and Meat Shield, they made their way to the raft where they landed and began to corral citizens to safety.

While the group of heroes secured their landing pad a fourth appeared on the scene. Batman, having heard the distress call through his personal systems, decided to finally put himself to the test in his first action as a superhero. Using an armored suit he designed himself, he flew his Batjet around The Raft trying to get a clear idea of what was happening. A sudden electrical explosion destroyed part of the prison and clipped the Batjet, causing it to crash. Ejecting from the jet, Batman glided into the hole made by the explosion only to see Electro escaping with another prisoner.

Batman landed in the midst of several escaping convicts, which he quickly dispatched with a series of kicks and punches. Making his way through the top level he came upon the landing pad which the other heroes had just cleared. As Meat Shield ran forward to Batman to make contact and determine who he was, another explosion rocked the prison and Count Nefaria emerged from a hole in the landing pad. Our heroes teamed together for the first time and took down the evil Count in a few quick actions, only to have him be replaced by the Living Laser who did not stop to fight, but ran.

Having secured the top level, our heroes decided to descend the broken elevator shaft to put an end to the rioting amongst the more dangerous villains. Deciding to scout ahead, Meat Shield ran to the lowest levels where he found The Sentry sitting alone in his open cell. Meat Shield tried to talk Bob Reynolds into helping the heroes contain the escapees, but to no avail. After giving up on the sulking hero, he turned to investigate where he thought the power plant would be, only to be ambushed by Carnage.

While Meat Shield ventured forth on his own, Safer, Ollie, and Batman took the top of the lower levels and worked to contain the rioters there. They ran across Controller, Crossbones, Constrictor, and Jigsaw. Having not found their weapons, these villains were not very formidable. Ollie reached out to Constrictor, a man he had served with in S.H.I.E.L.D., and made him think twice about attacking people he used to help. While doing so, Safer and Batman quickly knocked out the unarmed Crossbones and made Controller try and flee. Oliver Storm stretched out and grabbed the flying Controller, slamming him back down to prevent his escaping. Jigsaw retreated further into the prison while the heroes knocked out the indecisive Constrictor.

Session 2

After taking out Constrictor, Batman and Oliver Storm started to press forward when Safer suddenly sank to the floor. He ushered them onward, informing them of a mental assault he was defending against. With still no sign of Meat Shield, they made their way after Jigsaw, but turned towards the sound of a large scale battle.

Emerging in a large hangar with a single helicopter, the twosome saw two warring factions of inmates trying to take the vehicle for themselves to escape. There were too many villains to count, but the heroes did notice a few leaders on each side that include The Brothers Grimm, Silver Samurai, Grey Gargoyle , Razorfist, Tombstone, and Tigershark chained to Armadillo.

Rather than insert themselves into the fray, the two heroes snuck around the rafters to get behind the battle where they could take the helicopter for themselves. Batman, turning invisible, snuck to the cockpit of the helicopter to radio for backup, but the radio squelched and attracted the attention of the Brothers Grimm. Attacking Olliver, they were ambushed from behind by the Batman and one of the brothers fell while the other retreated. Figuring subtlety was lost; the pair hopped into the helicopter and opened fire on the inmates below.

After spraying the crowd with tear gas, Batman lunged out of the helicopter and landed on Tombstone, knocking him out cold. He then proceeded to thin out the crowd and fight the rest of the villains. Olliver prepared to join his ally when an explosion signified the entrance of Captain America and Iron Man. The four heroes were able to quickly dispatch the rest of the villains and secure the raft.

Captain America delivered orders indicating that the heroes should rendezvous back at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ for debriefing, so the two collected Safer, who had subdued all villains with mental powers, and Meat Shield who had found part of a prisoner’s uniform in the power plant after escaping Carnage.

Session 3

The group got back together once the breakout ended and made their way back to the Helicarrier. Whilst in route they examined the uniform scrap they found and determined it belonged to a Karl Lykos. Once they reached the Helicarrier Director Maria Hill questioned them about the breakout and got as much information as they could. They asked about Lykos but she informed them that their part in the breakout was done and to drop it.

Not to be deterred, the heroes hacked into SHIELD’s systems when they were ordered off the bridge. Batman was able to determine that Lykos was in Antarctica in the Savage Land and also discovered there was a SHIELD base near there that was offline. The heroes all hopped in a new Batjet and took off.

They found a nice clearing to land in and proceeded to set up a perimeter and get their bearings (having elected to go after Lykos than worry about some SHIELD outpost) when a large Tyrannosaurus Rex crashed through the brush and into the Batjet, destroying it. Safer was able to mentally perceive the dinosaur right before it crashed through and warned the others. A furious battle ensued. Safer tried to gain control of the large beast but realized he wasn’t powerful enough. They ended up killing the creature and Meatshield, taking offense, cut its head off. While trying to recuperate Safer caught whiff of more dinosaurs incoming. The group hid while a pack of Velociraptors came out of the jungle and began scavenging off of the large corpse. Our heroes left them to their meal.

After traveling through the jungle for a while they were ambushed by a group of mutates. Along with the group were Barbarus, Lupo, Vertigo, and their leader Brainchild. The heroes found themselves outnumbered, but fought valiantly still. Unfortunately, one of their teammate’s dark secrets came out in this battle. Safer, having previously made a pact with him, had his body taken over by Mephisto. The demon wreaked havoc on heroes and mutates alike, taking them all down. Mephisto did not have the strength to continue possessing Safer after the battle so he reverted to his original form. Some more mutates came along, collected the downed heroes, and brought them to Karl Lykos himself.

Session 4

Safer, Ollie, Batman, and Meatshield awoke several hours later, bound and naked, in front of a group of supervillains. Batman and Ollie, being totally reliant on their technology, were mere men, but Meatshield and Safer still had their innate abilities. While the heroes tried to figure out a way to escape, Lykos provided some rather unfriendly banter. He taunted the heroes and stroked his own ego. When they began to talk back he ordered the distraught looking Brainchild to take Oliver Storm to a machine sitting near his throne. Ollie, being weak, could not escape the clutches of his attacker and was placed in an unknown machine that, when turned on, caused immense pain. Once it was done they removed him back to his restraints and brought Meatshield to continue the process.

Meatshield was ready for his captors and used his enhanced speed to quickly run from their grasp. Safer was able to summon a mystical sword for the soldier and he proceeded to destroy equipment until the electronic bindings holding his allies disappeared. The battle was joined. Lykos had Brainchild, Worm, Amphibious, Whiteout, and Crossbones (a mercenary with a grudge against Meathsield) on his side. The heroes quickly scrambled to find their equipment which lay nearby. Batman and Ollie now suited up joined the battle. Lykos’s lackeys proved to be of little help to him, so he fed off of Meatshield to turn into Sauron. Breathing fire and dive bombing he was able to stall the heroes, but the arrival of SHIELD proved to be his undoing. Black Widow, along with a group of regular agents, helped to take down Lykos and bring him into custody.

Natasha Romanoff informed the heroes that SHIELD would take care of all of bad guys and offered them a ride back to the States. While aboard the Helicarrier on its way home the heroes again questioned Maria Hill and she again blew them off. They demanded answers for what was going to happen to Lykos, as well as about the SHIELD outpost and she responded by throwing them off the bridge. This time, she didn’t do it before Oliver Storm resigned from his SHIELD position. Black Widow escorted the heroes back to some quarters while they made the trip home and secretly informed Ollie that she knew something was wrong with SHIELD, but couldn’t say what.

Session 5

Now back in New York City, the heroes decided to track down Electro and see if there was more information they could glean about the breakout. First, they needed to locate him. They got a lead from SHIELD that Living Laser and Zzzax were currently hiding in a warehouse in the city. Having gotten away from them before, the heroes decided to make bring in Living Laser and his ally. Meatshield took this opportunity to part from his allies and track down his nemesis who had gotten away in the previous battle.

Quickly arriving at the warehouse in a Batjet, the heroes formed a plan of attack from a nearby building after noticing a few guards outside. They positioned themselves on the roof of the hideout and began their attack. Reaching through the roof, Ollie began to harass the villains while Safer and Batman slipped inside. Safer pulled his magic together and began wiping out the various guards stationed around the warehouse. Batman, seeing the success of his allies decided to search for clues while he was invisible. He located a computer and began to hack it to see if the two electric villains had been in touch with the man who broke them out.

Zzzax, finally realizing his attacker was on the roof, blasted through it taking Ollie with him. Safer was now alone with Laser and his goons, but still held his own. Mentally calling for help from Batman, he was rejected with the comment, “You’re doing fine.” Meanwhile, Ollie landed several blocks away. He quickly found a fire hydrant on the street and tried to soak Zzzax and ground him, but unfortunately he was unable to direct the water accurately. Zzzax took advantage of the newly flooded street and electrocuted the surrounding civliians. Olliver stretched to rescue them all and put them safely in the building behind him.

Back at the warehouse, Safer finished subduing the thugs with his magic and managed to complicate out Living Laser as well. All just in time for Batman to finish his hacking of the computer and discover that Electro had been in touch with the two escapees recently and that he was in Paris. Having what they came for, the two set out to find Oliver again. When they found him, he was still trying to trade blows with Zzzax, but neither was succeeding. Two intangible people fighting each other was very indecisive, so Zzzax flew away before Batman and Safer showed up. Armed with their new info, the heroes headed to Paris.

After landing a few hours later, the heroes managed to track down Electro to a small café where he was sitting with his girlfriend. Oliver and Batman watched from the shadows as Safer approached him pretending to be a waiter. Electro brushed him off to continue speaking with his girlfriend (who he was apparently trying to convince to run away with him). Safer pressed the conversation and, realizing something was wrong, Electro took his girlfriend and began walking down the Parisian street. Following, Safer asked for information in return for letting Electro and his lady go without a fight. Electro provided them a cell phone that payment had been taken through and continued his path to the airport. Batman and Ollie joined Safer at this point to discuss what they had found when they saw Loki standing in the middle of the street. His head tilted upwards with a large smile before he disappeared. A quick examination of the phone showed payment had gone through Latveria and the heroes knew where their next stop would be.

Session 6

Before making their trip to Latveria, the heroes sought out the guidance of Thor and the Avengers. They arrived at Stark Tower hoping to catch them there. Batman and Iron Man tested each other for a minute before Thor arrived and informed the heroes that his brother was currently residing in Latveria, but that they couldn’t do anything officially because no laws were being broken. Iron Man flat out refused any involvement, but Thor was convinced to go along. Before leaving, Ollie had Tony Stark scan him to try and figure out what the machine in the Savage Land had done to him, but got little results besides that his genetic material had been changed.

Seeking a little more guidance before heading out, the heroes went to see the Fantastic Four about Doctor Doom and Latveria. Reed and Ben Grimm didn’t know what was going on currently and had no idea why Loki and him would be allied. Oliver asked Reed to check him out as well and they were able to determine that Ollie had, for all intents and purposes, become a mutant. There was no indication of powers, but the possiblity existed.

Finally leaving out, the heroes arrived in Latveria and met a very impatient Thor. They strode up to Loki’s castle (provided by Doom) and announced their presence. Thor and his brother had an argument as they tried to figure out what Loki’s involvement with the breakout was and why he was in Latveria. Not revealing any secrets, Loki turned away the heroes. They immediately struck out against the Doom guards to force there way inside and get the answers they wanted.

After taking out the front gate, the heroes strode in. All except Batman who snuck over the wall and inside the castle while the argument was taking place. Inside the castle the heroes had to find their way through the winding maze of hallways. They were plagued by a security system the whole time (the heroes passed by the security room) but still made short work of the plethora of guards in the castle. Safer, deciding on a different course of action, called out to Loki and convinced him he was trying to work for him. Loki informed him to draw the heroes in so they could finish them together.

After many winding turns the heroes found themselves to the throne room. Fighting frost giants to get inside, they were confronted by multiple Loki’s who revealed that Safer was foolish to try and trick the ultimate trickster. A battle ensued, but thanks to Thor it was short lived. Clearly discovering they were outmatched, Thor elected to harass his brother until they stopped fighting. Loki then answered their questions and sent them on their way. The heroes didn’t learn much, except that Loki was denying having been to Paris. They were back to square one.

On their way home, tragedy struck. Mephisto resurfaced on their flight home and began to attack the teammates. Thor having flown on ahead, made Oliver the only one to defend against the demon as Batman flew the plane. Safer’s arm elongated into a clawed appendage which Mephisto drug through the side of the Batjet. Batman fought to maintain control as Ollie held off the demon. Since they were over the middle of the Atlantic the heroes had to save their transportation or they would be stranded. Realizing the fight wasn’t going to benefit Safer much, Ollie threw Mephisto from the Batjet, but the demon took him with him. While falling through the air Ollie struggled to break free of the demon but was unable to. A long, slender hand pierced him through his heart. An hour later Batman had the crashed Batjet functional and searched for his allies. Only finding Safer’s unconscious body, they returned to the United States.

Session 7

Worrying over the apparent death of one of their teammates, the heroes get no rest as a new threat begins rampaging around New York. At SHIELD HQ a 7’ tall alien is released from a cosmic shard that was functioning as a prison. Unable to open it themselves, SHIELD contacted Dr. Strange to try and release the trapped creature. Upon release, the creature burst out of the building and into the middle of New York City.

Batman and Safer responded to the threat immediately. Hovering overhead in the Batjet they saw a grey creature covered in fur. Leaping into action, the two heroes tried to subdue this unknown threat. Stuck in a rage, The Grey began to damage the city and the heroes attacking him. Leaping through a building he managed to grab some debris and take down the Batjet, forcing the hero inside to meet this new foe on the ground. Safer tried to trap the alien in a swirling tornado of flaming Batjet pieces but he smashed through the ground and into the subway tunnel below.

With SHIELD agents now at their side, the heroes followed him downwards as The Grey began to tear up the track. Fighting him, the heroes weren’t able to make much of a dent before he leapt back onto the street.Finally, the heroes were able to take him down and, much to everyone’s surprise, he shrunk down to be only 4’ tall. Once they returned him to SHIELD headquarters, it was explained to them that the creature was an alien and that he had awoken in his rage. Safer tried to probe his mind and discover what might be his intentions. During this process Maria Hill got a report of Doctor Octopus robbing a bank. While everyone turned to the live feed, The Grey woke up and saw Doc Ock kill a police officer. Breaking his bonds, he leapt through the building again.

Safer and Batman caught up to him at the bank robbery where The Grey was trying to take down the robbers. Deciding to help, the group managed to take down all of the robbers. Once they had worked their way inside, Safer closed the vault door and magically locked it to prevent Doc Ock from escaping, only to have him burst through the side of the building, grab a hostage, and crawl away. Unable to keep up with the doctor, they turned their attention to the last few robbers. Once they were stopped, The Grey began leaping across buildings in pursuit of Doctor Octopus. Safer followed The Grey on a flying carpet, while Batman interrogated the remaining thieves to learn of their hideout. Getting the information, he made his way to a warehouse near the river right as the other two arrived.

Once inside, the heroes took out a few more thugs before their final showdown with the doctor. One tentacle wrapped around a hostage, he threatened the heroes to leave or she would die. Unperturbed, Safer tried to rescue the woman, only to fail. The Grey, having a cosmic kusarigama, cut off the arm holding the girl so she could escape. As Doc Ock yelled in fury, Batman snuck up from the side and knocked him out with one hit. SHIELD arrived shortly after to collect the thugs and try to take The Grey back into their custody. Safer convinced them to let The Grey stay with him and Batman since SHIELD obviously couldn’t contain him, and work as a hero until they could figure out what else to do with him.

Session 8

Sitting around the sanctum, the heroes are working to make a translator for The Grey. Reed Richards and Iron Man are on a live feed from their respective workshops while Agent Coulson of SHIELD and Abigail Brand of SWORD are awaiting nearby. Batman places the translator around The Grey’s neck and he can finally talk to his comrades. Safer had gleaned his alien language from him mentally and shared it with the rest, but nobody could speak with him except Abigail Brand who took to it rather quickly. As they sat around congratulating one another Iron Man said he would work on the patent for the technology since Batman couldn’t without revealing his identity.

There was a knock at the door. Wong went to answer and a moment later he was blown back down the hallway. As the heroes rounded the corner they saw a demon stepping over the threshold. The imposing figure began yelling for Ollie and yelling that his soul belonged to him. Abigail rushed forward and tried lighting him on fire with her hands, but he absorbed the fire and batted her aside, knocking her unconscious. A furious battle between the heroes and the demon ensued and all the while it yelled for Ollie. A few well placed bullets from Agent Coulson and a couple of chandeliers later and the demon was whipped outside from an unseen force and thrown into the building across the street. They ran outside to find Ollie along with Namor. Namor explained that Ollie had sunk unconscious and injured to the depths of the ocean where the Atlanteans found him. A few words were said and Namor departed for his home.

As the heroes began to catch up Ollie on their new teammate the building across the street exploded. Fire erupted as the demon broke free of the building and grew and didn’t stop growing until he reached the height of the empire state building. Completely insane and on fire, the demon began to tear through New York City and cause untold amounts of damage. Once again springing into action, the heroes did their best to subdue the creature. Trying not to get close to it, the heroes used nearby water towers, fallen debris, and the Batjet to weaken it. During its rampage it bounced off of the Baxter Building which apparently had a shield. A few moments later and the building glowed. Reed Richards voice was magnified over the city as he yelled at the heroes to get away from the creature. The Baxter Building erupted in a lance of energy that shot forth and struck the creature, lifting it off its feet and throwing it into the nearby bay. Not trusting it to be down for good, everyone went to investigate.

Sure enough, the water began to boil and the demon grew even larger, its top half bursting from the water and towering over the city. It returned its attention to the heroes and did its best to kill them. Small portals opened up around the demon and smaller ones began to appear around his head, flying. Another portal appeared in front of him and a group of figures floated before him. According to his speech with them they were Knight Templars there to stop him. With the templars taking care of the demons, Ollie and the rest were able to work on the larger foe. Batman furiously dodged and avoided the creature, Grey threw everything he could add it, Safer mimicked Grey and ripped things from the city (including every steeple), while Ollie searched for different ways to take it down including electrifying the river. Their plight almost worsened when Mephisto took over Safer, but he was an apparent rival of the other demon. Deneroth (for he named himself in his banter with Mephisto) was apparently a lesser demon with dreams of grandeur. Mephisto fought on the side of the heroes to keep this demon in check. Even after all their fighting they still could not best the demon. Not until the Avengers showed up. Thor struck the demon with lightning a dozen times to get it to submit to the god of thunder. Once again not trusting Deneroth to have truly fallen, they searched the river. In it, they found an Arabic man who was unconscious and taken into custody.

Mephisto released Safer but not before telling the heroes they owed them for his help. Weakened, the heroes regrouped only to have the Knight Templars land nearby. Accusing Safer of being a demon, they lunged to attack though they were severely beaten themselves. Their leader announced his name as Robert de Sablé and he swore to purge Mephisto from this world. Though they were all weakened Safer still managed to pull out a little magic and made the Templars lose their will to fight through Mind Control. Now with everything seemingly safe, the heroes took their leave to attend to their wounds.

Session 9

Spider-Man has always been a nuisance in New York City. The recent devastation by Deneroth has caused enough hysteria and panic to give a few villains the edge they think they need to finally take down the web slinger. Norman Osborn and the Kingpin met in secret and devised a plan. They pulled together a group of villains consisting of Bullseye, Kraven the Hunter, and Mysterio. Rhino was being transported across town in a security vehicle, but with police forces already spread thin the security forces on the truck would be small. These three villains could spring the Rhino and with his help have the chance of killing Spider-Man.

The villains set up their ambush at a busy intersection and waited. As soon as the van came in view they struck. Bullseye began sniping policemen, Kraven took a tiger with him as he plunged into their forces and Mysterio used his gas to spread fear and discord among the civilians and officers. Unbeknownst even to them, Carnage was lying in wait as well (not wanting to miss killing Spider-Man) and sprung out of the sewers where he began eating people.

Realizing the van was secured from the inside, the villains tried to get close. Trying to trick the police into releasing him themselves, Mysterio made them think there was a young girl trapped inside a burning car. This plan was seemingly going to work until Carnage shapeshifted into a young girl to try and get close to the officers. Thinking they had accomplished their task, they retreated from the van and were promptly eaten for their kindness. Realizing Caranage was trying to work with them, Mysterio communicated to the rest about their newest ally. With most of the officers dead, Spider-Man himself showed up to try and save the day.

Spider-Man offered many quips at the villains while fighting them. He got several good hits on them including webbing up Kraven’s tiger. Not to be deterred, Kraven called for an elephant to replace the tiger. Trying to fight the battle on four fronts proved too much for Spider-Man and he fell under the weight of his attackers. With a final blow from Kraven the web-slinger was thrown through several buildings before finding himself at the feet of Batman, Grey, Ollie, and Safer.

The heroes halted their repair efforts and revived Spider-Man. After learning of his attackers they set off to stop the villains. A few blocks away they found Mysterio releasing Rhino from the van. A sedation system was hooked up to the prisoner that had to be constantly fed or he would wake up. Batman immediately set upon the controls to try and prevent his escape. Ollie approached from the roofs and stumbled upon Bullseye so they fought while Safer took care of Carnage and The Grey attack Kraven. The villains were whittled down, but it was apparent Batman could not contain Rhino for much longer. Ollie lunged forward after landing a devastating blow on Bullseye and began to drive the van towards the river. A rampaging elephant carrying Kraven gave pursuit while the remaining heroes took out Carnage and Mysterio.

Now giving chase, Safer and The Grey realized that Kraven had been taken out so a van with Rhino in it was careening towards the bay with an angry elephant in tow. Unfortunately, the sedation wore off and a giant horn tore through the roof of the security van right before the back door exploded open. Ollie swerved the van to try and keep him inside. The big dumb Rhino figured out his driver was his enemy and quickly tried to pierce through the front half of his cage to try and stab him. Ollie narrowly avoided the blow while Batman had to leap out of van to avoid the same blow. Safer tried to create a ramp into the water for Ollie to drive on but the weight of Rhino proved too much for his will. As soon as an opening appeared in traffic, Ollie jerked the wheel to the side and plunged them into the bay.

Rhino began to sink, his immense weight becoming a complication. To try and make him sink further, Grey quickly leapt on his head to drive him down but was grabbed hold of by Rhino. Batman dove into the water to try and save Grey but became ensnared himself. Only by the combined efforts of Safer, Ollie, and Spider-Man were they able to free the two and let Rhino sink until he was unconscious. A few webbed up villains later and the day was saved.

Session 10

Due to their recent actions to save the city, the heroes are invited to an awards ceremony. They’re sitting around Dr. Strange’s house musing over the invitation. All of them except Batman, that is. Dr. Strange encourages them to go as it is good exposure and they deserve the recognition, though he won’t be attending himself on account that he has become incresingly weakened by all the demonic proceedings. While they were talking a news report came on the tv stating Black Widow had attacked Maria Hill and fled the Helicarrier, possibly killing the Director of SHIELD. Batman, meanwhile, thinks over the same question in the Batcave. His predicament is that Batman AND Bruce Wayne were invited. If he went in his secret identity then his allies could recognize him since they had seen him before (when they were captured in the Savage Land) but he couldn’t go as Batman as he thought the awards ceremony was unecessary. To further his internal struggle, Alfred dropped a newspaper nearby that showed the city knew Bruce Wayne was back in town and they were now theorizing the reclusive trillionaire was crippled. He opted to go, but he would watch from a nearby rooftop.

During the ceremony many different heroes were being recognized for their efforts. The mayor began with the Avengers, of which only Captain America was present, and moved on afterwards to the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and other lone wolf types. During the speeches given by the heroes, Batman watched and listened from his post near Central Park when he was approached by a woman in a black leather outfit lined with fur. She introduced herself as Black Cat and made playful banter at the Dark Knight before excusing herself. Batman finished watching the proceedings knowing he could pick up her trail in a few minutes. As the ceremony came to a close, Safer, Ollie, Grey, and the missing Batman were recognized. The mayor gave a rousing speech stating that these ‘outsiders’ had come to the city’s aid when they needed it the most and deserved their gratitude. Ollie gave an impromptu speech to the crowd and the proceedings drew to a close.

Shortly after the ceremony the heroes were met by the Mayor with a set of keys. It seemed several wealthy donors of the city had decided to bequeath a base of operations to the heroes. It wasn’t much, just a warehouse on the edge of town next to the river, but it was more than they had. They accepted the keys and went to check out their new home at the same time Batman was leaping off a rooftop in pursuit of the mysterious Black Cat. He found her several blocks away in the Museum of Modern Art. He had the Batjet he had used to pursue her scan the building to try and locate her. Making his way to the center of the building, he found her stealing all of the paintings from the gallery donated by the Wayne Foundation. Talking with her he learned she had been sent specifically to steal only the stuff donated by the Wayne Foundation and that she knew it was some bid against Bruce Wayne’s power.

While Batman spoke to Black Cat, the other heroes had arrived at a dingy warehouse. The security fence around the property was badly damaged, though the lock still hung unnecessarily from the front gate. They entered the warehouse and Safer conjured some lights to see how big the place actually was, only instead of being empty like they had thought two women were standing there. They did little to introduce themselves before a group of ninja’s appeared out of nowhere next to them. The heroes would learn later their attackers were Elektra and Typhoid Mary, but for the moment they were more worried about their swords than their names. They made short work of several of the ninjas, but had a problem after Typhoid Mary had been hit several times and apparently was losing control.

Fire erupted from the girl who was now squatting in the middle of the warehouse and burst forth to burn the heroes. Ollie and Grey managed to dodge out of the way while Safer conjured a large fan to blow it back towards Mary. A few more hits from Grey rendered her unconscious while Ollie worked against Elektra who had moved into the rafters above. As their new home burned, Batman found himself suddenly attacked by Black Cat. Not trusting the hero to let her thieve and get away with it she whipped out her whip and tried to strike the Batman. A quick batarang thrown lightly turned her hand away and he stepped forward offering to let her go if she would only give him the information about who was paying her for the job. She made the deal.

A few minutes later she was riding away in the back of a truck when she threw a envelope at the Batman and blew him a kiss. Opening it, he found a cell phone inside. Calling the only number on it, he had the Batcomputer trace the call to an address on the other side of town before hanging up on the man who answered. Hopping into the Batjet, he made haste to the address but on the way he saw a building on fire and turned to help. Inside, his allies were surprised at the Batman’s arrival as he quickly helped to dispatch the last of the ninjas and take Elektra down. SHIELD arrived shortly after to take all of the attacker into custody. The rookie who spoke with the group let slip that the beacon placed on the members hadn’t gone off early enough, a beacon they were unaware of. Ollie was being summoned to the SHIELD Helicarrier by Maria Hill herself and was asked to come alone.

After quickly conferring with his teammates, Ollie boarded the SHIELD aircraft along with a camouflaged Batman. They were taken aboard and Ollie led into a conference room. Sneaking past Maria Hill, Batman waited in a corner as they spoke. Maria Hill informed Ollie that Black Widow had turned traitor and had tried to kill her. She was offering Ollie a position with SHIELD again if he agreed to track her down. She held the file that contained all the information on Widow including her current whereabouts, but SHIELD didn’t want to pursue her incase she rabbited. Ollie turned down the offer to rejoin SHIELD, still not trusting Maria Hill entirely. At this point she informed Batman (much to his surprise) and Safer that they should feel free to leave the boat. Ollie tried to convince her to let him have the file and even went so far as to try and take it from her. He failed to do so and had several guns trained on him now. Leaving peacefully, the heroes headed back to their base while pondering their next move.

Session 11

As Batman and Ollie land back at the warehouse they find a newspaper. The front page is dedicated to the awards ceremony the day before with the headline ‘The Outsiders’. Their team had been given a name. After the recent news of Black Widow’s betrayal and Ollie’s own misgivings about Maria Hill, he opts to track down the superspy and is looking to recruit help to do it. The other heroes are sitting around the base deciding what to do when Batman picks up some strange readings. One of his personal satellites just recorded a ship crashing in a field 500 miles away. According to the information fed to him, the ship did not look human. Relaying this information to the others got Grey excited, hopeful that it could be someone he knows.

They quickly set out and flew to the scene. During their approach they realized someone else was already there. Batman engaged their stealth systems to avoid being seen. He landed nearby and they observed the proceedings. A large group of people in HAZMAT suits were setting up a perimeter and interacting with the crashed vessel. It most definitely wasn’t human, though The Grey didn’t recognize the design. As they watched, a very large figure appeared and moved among the people. It was MODOK. The Outsiders only knew him by reputation and none of them had no prior experience with AIM. Playing on this fact they left the Batjet and approached the salvage team to talk.

MODOK was less than impressed with the heroes. He told them he was salvaging the ship since it was in the public domain to create technologies to better mankind. Safer called his bluff by drawing attention to the acronym of MODOKS name. Feeling they were wasting his time, he ordered his AIM soldiers to attack. A swarm fell upon the heroes, but luckily they had brought more scientists than soldiers. Batman set to work on the normal grunts, bobbing in and out of the scientists he quickly punched and kicked. Safer began to mentally combat MODOK, but MODOK landed the first blow and placed mental blocks in Safer’s head to try and prevent his use of magic. The Grey took MODOK head on.

The battle was furious but lasted a long time. Grey bobbed in close to MODOK but regretted the decision when he was knocked under the large villain. Shutting off his chair, MODOK landed squarely on Grey causing significant damage. He then reached into The Grey’s mind and forced him to attack Batman. Safer quickly set to work trying to reverse the effects, though his own powers were dampened, but not before Grey leapt at Batman with his chain-sickle. Batman reacted quickly and pressed a few buttons which called the Batjet over to slam into The Grey. Safer was then able to reverse the Mind Control as Batman dispatched the last few scientists. With their combined efforts now focused on MODOK, they made short work of him.

Batman landed a final punch to MODOK’s face (with explosive gel on his gauntlet for extra oomph) when the large figure surrendered. The Outsiders told him to give them everything he had salvaged. MODOK, feigning compliance, took himself over to one of the vans they had been loading and while pretending to open it called one of his bases which teleported him and the van out of there. They had lost MODOK, but they still had most of the craft. Quickly searching it they found blood and some alien technology that had been pulled out of it. Safer tried to search the memories within the blood for clues as to the alien. He got flashes of emotion that seemed to do with the crash and something about the country Germany. While he did that, Batman and Grey loaded the tech into the Batjet. As they were doing so SHIELD arrived.

Agent Coulson debriefed the heroes and thanked them for securing the scene, but that SHIELD would have to take it over. Safer asked for a sample of the blood so that it might be used for further investigation. Agent Coulson resisted at first, but they offered to trade him the information they had obtained from it in exchange for the sample. They didn’t mention the tech they had already taken. He accepted and soon after the heroes were heading home to study their findings. They called Ollie to tell him the good news, and he informed them that he had gotten Hawkeye’s support and they knew were Black Widow was.

Session 12

With the alien artifacts successfully tucked away, the heroes debated over whether to go to Germany or Russia while the equipment and blood sample were analyzed. They knew were Black Widow was, but The Grey was extremely interested in any alien activity for good reason. In the end they decided on Russia since Hawkeye pointed out they knew were Black Widow could be, but they had no other leads in Germany.

Hawkeye navigated them to a small airfield deep within Russia. After years of knowing Natasha he figured she would be nearby and he was right. As the exited the Batjet they found Black Widow standing at the foot of the ramp waiting for them. As they questioned her she explained that she had not attacked Maria Hill, that whoever it was was an imposter. Natasha had walked in on the supposed Maria Hill as she was shapeshifting. She caught sight of a lot green before the imposter turned to attack. Black Widow shot her through the neck before making her escape. Ollie recounted that she was perfectly fine when he spoke to her after the attack. Whoever it was, was powerful. Natasha then explained that she had found the location of Nick Fury and she planned on getting the actual Director of SHIELD back.

Sharing info, she showed them the plans to an AIM base that was housing him. She didn’t know what AIM could want with Director Fury since they were a technological manufacturer, but it couldn’t be good. The base had many defenses and few options. After forming a plan of attack, they all got in her vehicle and drove to the base. Guarding the entrance was a group of soldiers and two automated turrets. Making short work of them, they all proceeded to head inside. Safer elected to guard the entrance while providing minor support. He gave Ollie magical armor that would make attacks fail in spectacular ways, he gave Batman a whirlwind that could propel him, and Grey a purple creature that originated from his home planet that he could ride. Thusly armed they stormed the base.

Once inside, Hawkeye and Black Widow split off to secure the Armory and arm themselves with better weapons. The Outsiders branched off to the security room to try and shut down the turrets around the base that kept popping out of the ceiling. They met quite a bit of resistance, but fought their way up to the door. The techs inside had barricaded themselves in, though. A combination of phasing and bluff tactics led to the deaths of everyone inside except one man. They threatened him into unlocking the security system but he passed out so Safer reached into his mind and pulled out what they needed. They now had access to all the security information, layout, and control of the turrets. They found Fury’s location on the very bottom level and relayed the info to Black Widow and Hawkeye to meet them there.

Ollie stayed behind to control any security doors and run the automated turrets. Once they reached the bottom floor he let them inside and they found Nick Fury hanging in the middle of the room. His arms were missing. As they approached they realized it was a Life Model Decoy of his, a fact that didn’t seem to surprise Natasha. She tried to bring the unit back online and talk to Nick Fury, when they heard someone behind them. MODOK emerged from the shadows, only it wasn’t him. The imposing villain had been reconstructing the LMD technology and they were seeing a half finished version in front of them with half its face missing. While it didn’t possess his mental powers, the seat was fully armed and MODOK unleashed that upon the heroes.

Black Widow and Hawkeye fell under the combined might of several lasers and weapons, while the others labored furiously to beat him. During the battle the heroes realized their mental link and the powers bequeathed by Safer were removed. As they were finishing the fight with MODOK, Ollie checked the external cameras and noticed Safer had changed into Mephisto, but that Mephisto was lying unconscious on the ground. A full SHIELD strikeforce was entering the base. He quickly labored to shut all the security doors, but some were already inside. Realizing they didn’t have much time the heroes scrambled to think of a plan of escape. They ripped the eye out of MODOKs unit, hoping to glean information from it as well as the head from Fury’s LMD.

Ollie began yelling at the SHIELD agents and demanded to talk to Maria Hill. She indulged him as her agents counter-hacked his controls and blew open the security doors. She informed him that they were under arrest for assisting a traitor who had tried to kill her. Ollie kept resisting and trying to fight her, but the agents quickly made their way to him and he surrendered to the multiple Cape Killers that had their weapons lowered to his chest. Thinking quickly, the group downstairs knew they couldn’t hide. Natasha and Hawkeye were took weak and The Grey too big for he had become upset at the proceedings and enlarged to his 7’ tall form again. Knowing there was nothing else to do, The Grey sacrificed himself to distract the SHIELD agents from Batman. Batman, who had been camoflauged the entire assault, snuck out of the bunker as The Grey lifted the platform holding the robotic Nick Fury over his head and screamed his defiance at the SHIELD agents. Outside, Ollie watched as Black Widow and Hawkeye were brought up and Safer and Grey were both detained (both full of tranquilizer darts) but there was no sign of Batman.

Session 13

Batman stood alone in Russia as his only allies were flown away in the SHIELD Helicarrier, along with his Batjet that they had found. He quickly called to his butler to send him another one and processed a plan to secure their release. He had the head of the Nick Fury Life Model Decoy, so when the Batjet arrive he scanned it and had Lucius Fox make a disguise mask and voice changer so he could present himself on the Helicarrier and take back his team without getting arrested himself.

As Batman formed his plan and prepped his assault, Ollie awoke in one of the cells on the Helicarrier. Maria Hill entered the room shortly thereafter and tried interrogating him, but got little more than insults from the agent. Realizing it was a waste of her own time, she left and one of the guards from outside the room entered and began to interrogate Ollie with his fists. Ollie, tied to the chair, couldn’t do anything to resist, but realized that the punches had stopped hurting after a minute or two. Then, he realized the punches seemed to be making him stronger. A particularly nasty blow sent him reeling sideways and his wrists broke through the handcuffs binding him. It seemed Ollie had finally developed his mutant power. Taking advantage of the guards stunned hesitation, Ollie quickly attacked and disabled the two men that were with him. Outside of his room were more cells holding his friends whom he started to free. Grey and Safer were both under sedation since their powers could not be contained, so they took a few minutes before they were useful.

While his teammates were escaping, Batman had landed on the Helicarrier in the disguise of Nick Fury. A full contingent of SHIELD agents were awaiting him on the deck, along with Maria Hill. ‘Fury’ tried to talk them down, only to be promptly arrested and escorted to the bridge. Not understanding what was going on, he had little choice but to let them take him. As the reached the bridge, so did the rest of the Outsiders. Maria Hill dove inside and shut the door behind her, leaving a squad of SHIELD agents to try and take down the superheroes. Something they couldn’t manage to do. Batman quickly donned his suit (keeping his face hidden) and they went onto the bridge. Maria Hill stood alone, typing on a console. The heroes threatened her to stand down, but she ignored them until she pulled a small device from her pocket and activated it. It was then that she turned and shapeshifted into Loki. The blast shields behind him opened to reveal a large alien force descending on New York City. He cursed the heroes for their interference, but explained how they couldn’t stop him now that he had shut off all of the worlds defenses. The entire planet was being invaded and most of the military forces and firepower were offline. Lokie explained the Chitauri forces would wipe humanity from the Earth.

The Outsider struck. Ollie left with Black Widow and Hawkeye to get extra weapons, knowing this time they didn’t have Thor to help them defeat Loki. The others did their best to defeat him, when Loki changed into Wolverine and began clawing at the heroes. He managed to catch The Grey in the side before getting knocked back. Batman charged but Loki was too quick and managed to throw the hero out of the window, though he grabbed the ledge. Loki then transformed into The Thing after a few more hits to make himself impervious rather than just having a healing factor. Ollie had recovered his gear by now and tried stretching up through the carrier to hit Loki, but he missed. Batman summoned his Batjet up underneath him to catch him rather than climb back up, but as he was dropping down Grey knocked Thing out of the window and onto the Batjet, leaping down after him. Now fighting on the hovering jet, the three of them traded many blows. Safer and Ollie did their best to help from the helicarrier and they ended up knocking Thing off of the jet to fall to the city below.

Now free of the villain, the heroes descended into the city to stop the alien forces. Ollie stayed on the Helicarrier, piloting it, while Batman stayed in his Batjet. Grey leapt through the streets knocking aliens out of the air while Safer spent his entire time rescuing civilians. Along with the Outsider, the Avengers took to the streets and helped protect the city from the invaders. The Chitauri swooped amongst the city wreaking havoc and killing people. Leviathans descended up on the city releasing even more foot soldiers and they all seemed to descend from the heavens. Thor arrived and rockets skywards, finding himself facing an alien mothership. Putting all of his might behind his attacks, it still took several hits to make the ship fall. The heroes in the city below fought tooth and nail to deplete the forces. As soon as the mothership fell and reinforcements dwindled, the Chitauri began to pull back from the fight and used their shapeshifting to go into hiding. Once again the city was saved, but it was only the beginning as news reports from around the world showed that there aliens everywhere.

Session 14

After repelling the invasion of NYC, the Outsiders made their way back to home base where they discovered an intruder. Standing inside of the wards Safer had put around the alien artifacts was a young girl. She introduced herself as System, and asked to join their team. She had been studying them (her superpowers granting her the ability to mimic any actions she sees and to understand what she sees) and had also discovered what all of the alien technology was. They had taken the navigation system of the ship which was still linked to the aliens mainframe, allowing it to display the location of every alien ship on the planet.

They took the information to the Avengers and SHIELD. Captain America had recognized the Chitauri forces from his encounter with them during World War II, and noticed that they were amassing at one of the old Hydra bases in Germany. Deciding he was going there, the Avengers split up across the globe to help with more of the incursion. The Outsiders decided to support Captain America in Germany and then work their way southward into Africa and Wakanda which was under siege.

Arriving in Germany, they stormed the Hydra base. Quickly eliminating the resistance they stood outside, they worked their way inside where the forces fell before their full on assault. Having just begun to amass their forces in the area, the base was sparsely defended and did not have full measures set in place to repel invaders. Thus, the heroes charged through the Hydra and eventual Chitauri forces they ran across.

Deep within the base the found Madame Hydra, Baron Strucker, and a Chitauri Commander plotting over a computer. They split up at the sight of the heroes, the Baron going one way towards an airplane hanger and Madame Hydra along with the Chitauri made their way to a submarine bay. The heroes split up as well with Safer and the Captain going after the Baron while Grey and Batman took the other two.

Grey and Batman caught up quickly to their charges and quick work to immobilize them. Their adversary was more bent on escape and made their way into a submarine, locking the door behind them and starting their descent into the ocean. Batman, knowing he couldn’t stop a submarine went back to the computer they had been using to see what secrets it held. Grey, unwilling to admit defeat, plunged into the ocean and dragged the submarine back onto the dock. Rolling it across the floor, he heard Madame Hydra screech in pain as she was knocked unconscious, but the Chitauri Commander lunged from the vessel as he shapeshifted into a large monster. The two fought until the Commander was able to make his way into the other submarine. Once again, he was going to try and get away but Grey ripped the propellers off of the vehicle. A search of the submarine revealed the Commander had shapeshifted, torn his way through the sub, and swam away.

Meanwhile, Captain America and Safer did their best to lock the Baron to the ground. Safer summoned chains to bind the airplanes to the ground as Captain America battled one of his oldest foes. During the fight, Cap lost his shield which the Baron used to knock him out with. Safer only avoided a possible blow as well by removing himself from reality, temporarily. This cut off the power to the summoned chains and the Baron seized the chance to escape. Reviving Captain America, Safer then proceed to drag him back to the computer where Batman awaited with the plans detailing the aliens attacks. Grey showed up with Madame Hydra and they decided what they needed to do next.

Session 15

Having just defeated the HYDRA forces in Germany, but failing to capture the Baron and Chitauri Commander, the heroes plotted their next move…

Captain America decided to head to England to support London in its own invasion while The Grey decided to stay behind at the Hydra base to secure the captive Madam Hydra until SHIELD backup arrived, but to also study the alien technology littering the base. With their mental link in place, Safer, Ollie, and Batman spoke with System to determine the best course of action.

She informed the Outsiders of the threat still looming in Wakanda (though their shield hadn’t failed it was getting peppered by artillery) and of a new anomaly. Several alien motherships where hovering around the globe and not releasing their forces. Nobody could get a scan to see what was going on because of the shields the ships were projecting, but it couldn’t be good. The closest one to them was hovering over the pyramids in Egypt and after a brief argument, that’s where Ollie decided to go…alone. Batman and Safer made their own way into Africa to support Wakanda and the assault against them.

Upon reaching Wakanda, the two heroes found an alien force with artillery positions hammering on the shield of the small nation. Nothing seemed to be getting through, but not knowing how long that would hold the heroes leapt into action to take out the giant guns. To begin their assault, Safer made a shield of magic around him and dove out of the Batjet. Using himself as a human bullet, he collided with one of the artillery positions and knocked the guns into each other to destroy them. He quickly began working on the ground forces nearby to try and fight his way to the next position. At the same time, Batman used his Batjet to try and clear the area of forces. Managing to get shotdown, he used his grapple gun to hijack another alien ship that he was promptly shot out of. Using the same trick he procured another, but failed to evade the next bit of fire (mostly from not knowing how to fly an alien ship).

Safer finished up the ground forces and tried to call for help from Wakanda. Nothing was able to get through the shield (not even magic) so he used his powers to arrange the clouds in the sky into a message. While he moved to the next artillery position while Batman used a combination of batarangs and explosive pellets to destroy the engines of the remaining alien ships before proceeding to help Safer. The second artillery position proved to be as weak as the previous one and was easily taken down by Safer. His coup de grâce occured by conjuring a cannon and firing one of the elite soldiers into a nearby tree. As soon as Batman finished off the rest of the air forces, the shield of Wakanda flickered for a moment and gunfire began raining down on the enemies plaguing Safer. Now making his own way to his ally, Batman spotted a very large Chitauri running parallel to him.

As the all drew together, the two heroes realized the gunfire was coming from none other than Nick Fury himself. The lost hero made short work of the Chitauri soldiers and with Batman and Safer’s help he defeated the Chitauri commander, though Batman broke his gauntlets in the process. Nick Fury brought the two up to speed on his disappearance by telling them he knew of traitors within SHIELD and that Maria Hill was seemingly one of them. Fearing a plot on his life, he fled to Wakanda where T’challa was kind enough to give him refuge.

Meanwhile, in Egypt, Ollie and Agent Coulson had arrive at the mothership in Egypt. Hovering over the pyramids, the ship made no move against SHIELD’s Helicarrier. Ollie had System analyze the shield to try and find a weakness. Using the alien navigation computer they had taken from the crashed ship, she was able to synthesize a signal that would probably allow access. A high pitched whine erupted from the Helicarrier’s speakers causing the Egyptian military below to flinch. The mothership didn’t move, but some lights flickered across it so he hopped in a shuttle and proceeded to dock on their ship. Once inside the shield it still cut off the outside world. He was alone.

As soon as Ollie had landed in the docking bay of the ship he was surrounded by Chitauri soldiers. Thinking fast on his feet, he boldly stepped out of the ship and demanded that he be taken to their leader. Confused, the soldiers did so, taking him up to the bridge of the ship where he faced one of the Chitauri commanders. Ollie decided to try and deceive the invader and did his best to convince him he was an undercover Chitauri. He did this by yelling at the Chitauri commander. The commander tried to call him on his bluff, but Oliver seemed to have an answer for everything. Including why he couldn’t speak their own language. Pretending he was inspecting the ship, he asked for a detailed analysis of their progress and got it. Having enough of him, the commander asked him to be taken to a room where he could analyze the report. As Ollie left the bridge he noticed the commander talking into a communication system. To try and throw the commander off, he ordered his Chitauri escort to take him to the engine room instead to analyze how it was functioning.

Upon arrival, Ollie stared a large, open core engine and heard alarms begin to blare. The two Chitauri had something spoken to them over the comms before lowering their weapons at Ollie. He quickly stretched around each guard and threw them into the open core of the engine causing it to malfunction. The mothership now engine-less began to fall out of the sky. Oliver quickly phased himself through the floor and out of the ship where he turned himself into a parachute to land safely on the ground. However, his actions had caused the mothership to careen straight towards one of the pyramids. Thinking fast on his feet, Ollie grabbed one of the Egyptian military’s generators and stretched out to the pyramid. Using the electricity to boost his power bracelets he touched and phased the entire pyramid so the mothership passed right through.

Once the ship crashed, the military made short work of the survivors, while Ollie captured their leader by reaching inside of him and squeezing a vital organ. The Egyptian military took the alien technology into their custody in exchange for SHIELD taking the captive commander. Getting back in touch with the rest of the group, System let them all know that she had had time to figure out the data that Batman had gotten from the HYDRA base. It showed a separate base that was not located on their current map of the alien forces. Located in the abandoned SHIELD outpost in Antarctica (that the heroes forgot to investigate during the Breakout), the heroes now knew where their next mission would be.

Session 16

The heroes found themselves in Antarctica two days after their raids in Egypt and Wakanda. With Director Fury, they sat in the SHIELD Helicarrier’s briefing room staring at a holographic map of the Antarctic SHIELD base. It consisted of a large mine shaft with a facility surrounding it. They were unsure what alien forces were inside because of another shield blocking all outside contact. Reed Richards and System were hooked into the communications where they offered their own input. Together, they had been trying to crack the alien language, but hadn’t managed much. System locked out Richards when he started to ramble and explained to them that the best they could tell is that there was an alien army and they seemed to have a failsafe. There were constant references to a “Final Force” in the documents and the best they could tell it might be a bomb.

Tony Stark then arrived with all the reinforcements he could muster: super-villains. The United States had passed the proposal to offer pardons to all super-powered individuals who would help combat the invasion. Tony’s influence had done little except to keep them from releasing some of the worst offenders like Carnage. A brief argument happened as the heroes opposed their presence, but Fury dissuaded any conflicts by reminding them all that without the extra help they would have no chance to defeat the aliens. A battle plan was formed and the forces began to prepare.

After another day, the heroic forces stood in a line in front of the alien shield. On the other side rested the aliens own line of soldiers, along with a few gun emplacements and anti-aircraft towers. System signaled the start of the battle with a high pitched squeal. The same signal that she had used for Ollie in Egypt was being broadcast to allow them passage through the alien shield. Once inside, the battle was chaotic. Batman, in his typical heroic fashion, tried to stay completely camouflaged for the battle, but the vast amounts of snow rendered that impossible. He managed to take down many Chitauri soldiers with his batarangs and explosive pellets. Safer summoned an AT-AT foot to step on the gun emplacements, nearly destroying one of them. While The Grey created a cosmic baseball bat and ball to take down the other. His war cries of “Touchdown!” and “Goooooooooal!” showed his still weak understanding of Earth sports.

During the battle the heroes received help from various villains with Doctor Octopus saved the Grey, Living Laser helped Batman, and Grey Gargoyle saved Safer. General mayhem ensued around them as they fought the aliens. The Grey even knocked a DirectTV satellite out of orbit with one of his cosmic baseballs. Olliver Storm managed to stretch up and grab it, swinging it to crash in a safe place, though it had more dire consequences than anyone could have imagined. (UNAUTHORIZEDEDIT: Matt ruined my tv show! He must pay!) In this fashion they fought their way inside the base, leaving the rest of the alien forces and the AA towers for the villains and SHIELD agents. Meanwhile, Ollie called DirectTV (thinking their satellite had crashed of its own accord) and yelled at a support agent until one of the supervisors told Ollie they would give them DirectTV for free in their base.

Iron Man flew in with them, stopping at the entrance of the mine shaft. Housed in the mine was another mothership. A guard force protected it, but Safer summoned the arctic air from outside to come in an freeze them. He then stepped forward and entered the mind of one of the soldiers to draw knowledge of the ship and the aliens from him. The Outsiders elected to go to the bridge while Iron Man said he would check the engine room to see about shutting the ship down. Realizing they didn’t know their way, The Grey began leaping through the halls trying to cover as much ground as quickly as possible. While Safer tried to piece together the information from the knowledge he had taken from the Chitauri, Batman pulled out his Cryptographic Sequencer, sent out a sonar through the ship to make a map, and led them to the bridge.

Two more Chitauri Elites protected the bridge, but the heroes made short work of them as well by throwing them into one another, shocking them, and generally punching their lights out. During this, Iron Man came over their mental link to inform the heroes the ships core was exposed like the other, but many things were wired into it that he didn’t understand. It looked like they had found the “Final Force”. The bridge now seemingly clear, they walked onto it. The sight before them was grizzly. Maria Hill, malnourished, bruised, and unconscious hung on the wall. Surrounding her were many dead Chitauri. Batman rushed forward to try and get her down, only to be hit from the side. He took the brunt of the damage, rolled, and came up to face a being who hated him more than anyone else.

A Skrull stood before the heroes, his voice gritty and menacing. He revealed himself to be the shapeshifter they had fought on the bridge (not Loki) and the actual leader of this invasion. Yelling, “I am Scurra, one of the last of the War Skrulls! And I will be your doom.” he shapeshifted into a large figure, covered in lesions, with a spiked arm. The heroes fought their hardest against Scurra, all of them wanting to settle a score, but things managed to get worse. (UNAUTHORIZEDEDIT: Much worse! Muahaha! It’s my turn! Tell me it’s my turn, right?)

Safer, feeling something stirring inside of him, yelled at the others to try and get out, but it was too late. Mephisto emerged, enraged, and began to attack everyone. Iron Man showed up partially weakened (he had tried to EMP the alien technology) just as Mephisto emerged, but not before the demon had clawed Batman and knocked him unconscious. Then, (UNAUTHORIZEDEDIT: MY TURN $#%&ES! Woah, I totally curse in those fun marks! ## # !#$ @# #$#$!#&**^) Deadpool teleported onto the ship. Pointing directly at The Grey he said, "YOU RUINEDTHEFINALE OF TODDLERSANDTIARAS! How will I know if Honey Boo Boo won or not? You. Must. Pay!

Iron Man snuck Maria Hill out of the mothership while the rest of them battled. Mephisto and Batman both attacked Deadpool who’s only focus was on The Grey. The Grey ended up apologizing to Deadpool for whatever he had done, not understanding what Deadpool was talking about. (UNAUTHORIZEDEDIT: Oh, Matt knew what he had done! He knew!!!!) He cut a deal with Deadpool so that Deadpool could come to their base and watch TV, since Grey had ruined his own, if Deadpool agreed to fight against Mephisto. (UNAUTHORIZEDEDIT: Heck yeah I took that sweet deal! Their place is WAY cooler than that stupid apartment they narrated me into!)

Deadpool now on their side, the heroes managed to knock Scurra unconscious and turn their efforts towards Mephisto. Iron Man rocketed back into the fight, but sustained some damage when he was thrown through the ceiling. With their combined efforts, the four heroes managed to keep hitting Mephisto until he relinquished control of Safer, though it cost them all great stress and almost the entire supply of power from Batman and Iron Man’s suits to hit him hard enough. (UNAUTHORIZEDEDIT: They only won because I kept using the doom pool for my own powers. I’m so legit! High Five! And with my part of the bargain done, I teleported out of there to go watch some more tv!) Weak and almost powerless, the heroes turned to the laughter ringing out from Scurra. He had pressed a device in his hand that set off alarms throughout the ship. “This is just a setback. A practice invasion. I will be back to take over this Earth and none of you will be here to stop me.” Scurra turned blue and disappeared with a soft ‘BAMF’.

Realizing he had armed the “Final Force” the heroes scrambled to action. Iron Man hadn’t understood how much explosives there were, but considered the materials involved, he knew the blast would be larger than a nuclear explosion. Batman and Iron Man rushed off to the engine room while The Grey revived Safer, asking him for knowledge of how to fly the ship to maybe get it out of orbit. Safer fired up the ship and tried to yell at the others to get off the ship as he flew it himself, his plan being to try and allow Mephisto to have control in the hopes of killing him in the blast. Iron Man rushed back up to the bridge, trying to program his suit to fly the ship on his own so they could all escape. The Grey, now rushing to the engine room, summoned up thoughts of his home, the place where his planet used to be, to create a portal there to shove the bomb through. Safer, realizing what he was doing, helped with the efforts. Iron Man had gotten the ship in the air and moving out of the mine shaft when Batman pulled out his Cryptographic Sequencer again and found the frequency the explosive materials were vibrating at. The core went critical just as Safer and Grey pushed it through the portal. Batman managed to send out a counter vibration through his Sequencer to shut down the rest of the explosives. As the core was pushed through, detonating harmlessly in space, the ship crashed into the mouth of the mine, its engine now gone.

Session 17

It had been several weeks since the showdown in Antarctica and the heroes were finally getting a few moments to themselves. The events at the SHIELD base had been covered up so the public did not know how close their world came to ending, which also meant they didn’t know they owed their lives to The Outsiders and a bunch of villains. In the past two weeks the heroes had spent their time being debriefed by various governments and agencies while simultaneously policing any remaining aliens that were found, though many just disappeared.

Ollie and Safer had been summoned to the Helicarrier to speak with Nick Fury. Inside a briefing room they sat with Hawkeye and Black Widow as Fury offered them their jobs back. He had never worked with them personally, but they came highly recommended and had obviously proved themselves in Antarctica. Both accepted and Ollie became a full agent again while Safer returned to his advisory capacity. During this, Mephisto revealed to Safer that he now had a constant mental link with him and could talk to him and manifest an image of himself in Safer’s mind. Nick Fury provided Ollie with his first assignment, but said the mission wouldn’t expire for a few weeks so he had time to do other things. Leaving the ship, Ollie decided he would approach the X-Men and Charles Xavier to see if he could learn about his mutant abilities. Safer, meanwhile, decided to seek out Dr. Strange and see if he could locate the Book of Vishanti; a priceless tome of white magic that contains every counter spell.

Batman and The Grey were each off on their own at the moment. Sitting in his cave, Batman was examining the soil sample he took from Antarctica which turned out to be Antarctic Vibranium. It was illegal to mine it so SHIELD had been involved in some off the books activity. After speaking with Alfred and checking to see if there were any current crimes or other problems in the city Batman decided to go to SHIELD and ask Fury for more samples of alien blood to try and develop counter-measures. Meanwhile, The Grey was sitting in the SWORD satellite taking English lessons from Abigail Brand. He managed to learn a few words (though he might not be able to make all the sounds perfectly) and managed to ask Miss Brand to accompany him to an art museum. Before he left, he also convinced her to re-purpose some of their resources so he could send a message towards his homeworld in the hopes of any survivors. He sent a heartfelt message, then opened a portal back into New York City.

Ollie had arrived at the X-Mansion to be greeted by Xavier and Jean Grey. After a few minutes conversation he was taken to the Danger Room. There was no way to determine what his powers were besides testing. Taking turns, Cyclops, Iceman, and Colossus all hit him. It became apparent that Ollie could absorb kinetic energy to empower himself. They then ran a Danger Room simulation (with Sentinels and then Terminators) to try and see if it developed further under stress, though it did not. Oliver Storm now knew his mutant power. Xavier even offered for Ollie to come back anytime and asked Forge to build The Outsiders their own Danger Room.

Back in NYC Dr. Strange had told Safer that the book of Vishanti lay at the top of a mountain in Tibet and was guarded by a griffin. Due to his weak condition, Strange could not accompany him but did give him a map and teleported him to the mountain itself. Unbeknownst to Safer, he was actually back at his own base. Mephisto had taken control of his mind and was trying to get Safer to allow him deeper access. The Grey, returning from his English lesson, found Safer curled in the corner, vomiting and convulsing. Grey tried to help him but Safer repelled him with a magical barrier. Running out of ideas, he opened up the communicator Batman had given him and begged for assistance. They immediately contacted Dr. Strange and an hour later they had managed to transport Safer to the home of the Sorcerer Supreme.

Dr. Strange discovered what Mephisto was doing and decided to send the two heroes into Safer’s mind to try and pull him out. However, there was a catch. Whatever task Mephisto was having Safer complete was really to unlock the inner parts of his mind. If Safer completed the task, he would be lost to Mephisto’s control. Since Safer didn’t know what was going on if they tried to tell him what was happening it could damage his psyche. Batman and Grey had to convince their friend to abandon his quest to find an artifact he believed would end his curse. Batman asked about how powers would work in Safer’s mind to which Dr. Strange informed him that since it was a mental environment they could do anything, but obviously anything out of the ordinary could cause Safer to become confused and damage him.

Agreeing to the venture (and Batman setting up his own failsafe) the heroes plunged into their friends mind. They appeared directly in front of Safer who was already making his way up the mountain impeded by some demons. Mephisto, recognizing the heroes attempt, had Safer’s nemesis Robert de Sablé appear with them. Safer immediately questioned their motives since they were seemingly allied with a man trying to kill him. The sky went dark. Batman and Grey fought Sablé in the hopes that it might earn Safer’s trust while trying to convince him to give up the book. Safer, frustrated at everyone, tried to bind them all in chains so he could take a moment to figure out what was going on. Batman, realizing if he was incapacitated he could be no help, used ‘Magic Bat-Repellent Spray’ to avoid the chains. The sky turned red as Safer outburst about something he believed impossible.

The heroes continued to argue even after Sablé was taken down. The Grey, realizing it was fruitless, burrowed into the mountain to areas unknown. Batman thought he could convince his friend something was wrong by asking him if he believed the spray he just used could even be possible. The sky cracked, but held. Safer trudged on to his goal when all of a sudden Dr. Strange appeared in front of him. It was actually The Grey in disguise taking advantage of his ability to do anything. Unfortunately, Mephisto talked to Safer as Dr. Strange in his head and further confused the young man. With Batman not making any sense and two impossible Dr. Stranges he reached out to try and find The Grey and his innocent wisdom. When he found his friends mind inside that of the Dr. Strange before him the sky shattered.

All of them were ripped from Safer’s mind, including Safer himself. He observed as a specter above the scene while his friends frantically explained to Dr. Strange what had happened. With Safer’s psyche broken, Mephisto was taking over his body. With no other choice, Dr. Strange pulled Mephisto’s presence into himself. Safer awoke moments later to Dr. Strange lying comatose on a table next to him. Frantic explanations and some fighting occurred between the heroes with Batman and Safer feeling like some trust was lost. They had to put the argument aside for the sake of Dr. Strange and decided now that the real Book of Vishanti might be their only hope.

Session 18

The Outsider rush to the grave of Vincent Strange in the hopes the Book of Vishanti is still there. As they reach the cemetery they fan out and eventually find the tomb. Uponing entering the mausoleum the Stranges put him in, they open the tomb and are attacked by whatever was inside. A large humanoid leaps out and relentlessly attacks the Outsiders.

During the fight both the Grey and Ollie get bitten by the creature. Realizing it is a vampire, and possibly Victor Strange, Ollie works out a way for his phasing bracelets to isolate the foreign enzyme the vampire would have put into his body. Rather than use it on himself, he places the bracelets on Grey and prevents any likelihood of the alien becoming infected. However, there wasn’t enough time for himself.

Grey bends space and time to open a portal to the sun. The light fills the mausoleum and the vampire retreats into the cemetery. The heroes quickly grab the book and flee, leaving the powerful creature alone. On the way back to New York Safer finds the spell he would need. He realizes that he can use it to put Mephisto into any person in the world or banish him into nothingness, but that would allow Mephisto to eventually gain power and take control of someone. Once they arrive, Safer makes his decision and pulls the dark entity back into his own body, preventing Mephisto from plaguing anyone else.

Session 30

System is dead. For the first time the Outsiders find themselves together again and united for a single cause. Their reunion comes at the highest price. Gathering around the body of their fallen friend,

The team quickly sets to investigating the scene and decides to view the security footage in the Danger Room, below. Before they go down, Grey manages to reassemble System’s body into a more elegant form and Batman covers the young girl with his cape. The security video shows several mercenaries and Hand members surrounding her, taking orders from someone off camera. They’re trying to get her to summon the team and when she will not, the put a bullet through her head. Before any of them can react the building explodes around them.

Across the city Wilson Fisk smiles to himself as he watches the fireball plume into the sky. He knows his plan has worked and is awaiting the results.

The team, uninjured thanks to the reinforcement of the Danger Room, crawl out of the rubble. The explosion damaged much of the surrounding city and harbor. Each member of the team quickly decides the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Their justice waits as they help put out fires and rescue innocent civilians.

The team gets in touch with several contacts and analyzes what they could find at the scene. They manage to track down several leads pointing them to the location of a Hand base (though SHIELD warns to stay away), several hangouts of mercenaries and Hand members, and even the home address to the man who shot System. Batman and Robin decide to investigate the home while the rest of the team heads to a high profile club.

While Batman and Robin breach and secure the mercenary having dinner with his family, Grey creates a distraction for Time Turner and Safer to do their work in the club. Grey creates a rapper named the Fat Cosmic with his own cosmic powers. He uses the man as a distraction in the club to draw the attention of the crowd. Using the distraction, Time Turner and Safer are able to gather the needed information.

Both leads pan out that the Hand was directly involved and that their base should hold more answers. They were able to glean from their leads that Bullseye, Elektra, the Brothers Grimm, and Wilson Fisk were all involved.

The team coordinated with SHIELD and set up a joint task force to assault the Hand base. They quickly made their way inside, making short work of all the ninjas, and captured Elektra causing the rest of the members to immediately surrender. SHIELD began its cleanup of the situation and the team proceeded to turn their attention towards the Kingpin.